Mike Monroe: Coach of year? You know him

Coach of the Year is the most subjective of the postseason awards, even more so than Most Valuable Player.

There is but one quantifiable measure of a coach’s success: Number of victories. Too often, though, the voters penalize coaches with lots of talent.

How else to explain that Phil Jackson, with the highest winning percentage in league history for coaches who have been around for more than one season, has won the award once?
Voters love to recognize coaches who overcome adversity.

How many injuries had to be overcome?

What sort of mid-season adjustment had to be made after a blockbuster trade?

Overachievement is another major factor. A team that outstrips expectations is presumed to have done so because it was well-coached.

It appears a combination of these two factors will make Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau this season’s Coach of the Year.

A survey of 17 writers who receive ballots for the league’s postseason awards — roughly 13 percent of the electorate — indicates Thibodeau is an overwhelming choice.

Being one of the participants in the survey, I was privy to the results. Each voter was asked to reveal how he or she intended to vote, ranking his or her choices one through three.

Thibodeau received nine of 17 first-line votes.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich and 76ers coach Doug Collins were first on three ballots each; Nuggets coach George Karl was first on two.

Thibodeau’s name was on 16 of the 17 straw-poll ballots; Karl’s and Collins’ on 10; Popovich’s on eight. Only two other coaches got votes: Nate McMillan and Jackson.

The straw poll respondents appear to have been swayed by the fact Thibodeau took a team that went 41-41 last season and jumped to the top of the East despite losing Joakim Noah to an injury for 34 games.

Thibodeau’s Bulls have a 22-year-old superstar guard, Derrick Rose, who appears headed for this season’s MVP Award. But did they outstrip expectations more than Popovich’s aging Spurs?

After all, last summer the Bulls signed Carlos Boozer, a two-time All-Star, and 3-point ace Kyle Korver.

After finishing seventh in the West in 2009-10 and being swept in the second round of the playoffs, the Spurs’ big offseason acquisition was Gary Neal, an undrafted 26-year-old rookie who spent the last three seasons overseas. Which was more likely when the Spurs opened training camp: Top seed in the West, or their first trip to the lottery since 1997?

It was at training camp that the Spurs discovered a new, more energized head coach.

“It was a much tougher camp,” said Manu Ginobili, who begged his coach last summer to be more focused on the first months of the season. “More strict and to the point the first month or two instead of building, building, building until we get to late March or April in the best shape possible.

“That was the biggest difference that I found. Otherwise, he was more or less the same Pop we’ve always had.”

The tough camp helped the Spurs get off to the fast start Ginobili craved and allowed Popovich to rest his aging stars. The 60-win season owes more to good health than anything, but Popovich’s work, some of his best ever, ought to be noticed.

That’s why he will be on the top line on my official Coach of the Year ballot, followed by Karl and Thibodeau.